The computer hardware industry is moving at a feverish pace. Chipsets, processors, memory, and graphic cards seem to change almost overnight. The instant you buy something, its already obsolete. This onslaught of technology makes it difficult to make an educated decision regarding computer hardware. Although a great number of hardware sites exist they don’t tend to stress real world applications.
One case in question is the incredible amount of Quake3 benchmarks. Quake3 is an excellent game to gauge how well systems function in the gaming world, but doesn’t
accurately reflect performance in the realm of 3d applications. Frames Per Second doesn’t translate into Rendered Frames Per Second.
The best way to test real world applications, is to use the application itself to
test the system. In this case, the application of choice would be Discreet’s 3d Studio Max.

What is 3d Studio Max?

3D Studio Max is a modeling/animation package developed by discreet. It uses an open architecture to encourage program additions and features. These features allow 3dsmax to continuously evolve to suit the needs of the individuals using it.
It is widely used by artists, animators, and film makers throughout the industry. The latest version features a new renderer and a new user customizable interface. The features of 3D Studio Max (or Max for short) make it ideal to use as a benchmark for system performance.

Why is MAX a Viable Benchmark Option

3D Studio Max is an extreme system hog. If you have ever rendered a scene, or worked on an animation you’ll understand exactly what I mean. Max will normally max out all the processors in the system at 100% and suck away all physical memory you have. In some instances it will take all your system memory, 100% of both of your processors, and eat
away any and all virtual memory you have in your system, leaving almost nothing free.

It does this because of the incredible requirements the render needs. Texture maps, lighting sources, raytracing, reflections, refractions, bump mapping, dynamics, and particle systems stress the system to the limit.
The ability to take a system and force it to work at 100% of its ability for an extended period of time makes Max a perfect benchmarking tool.

What Makes This Benchmark So Special

This benchmark uses the default scenes that ship with 3dsmax3 and 3dsmax4. The scenes are available to anyone who is a licensed Max user which makes the benchmark extremely easy to replicate (No Downloads or Plugins Required),
and is a good reflection of the performance of the system in 3dsmax.

This is also not a single benchmark, but a group of three scenes benchmarked across three resolutions for a total of nine results. Single benchmarks never reflect performance as well as a suite of benchmarks. Though these three scenes can not embody all the possible scenarios one might encounter while working in 3dsmax, they do reflect a large percentage
of the average daily work that many users encounter.

Can I Run These Tests in 3DSMAX4

These tests can be run in 3dsmax4. But keep in mind 3dsmax4 renders a bit slower then its previous version due to "enhancements".